cation and Secession, so often
confounded, are, indeed, antagonistic principles. Nullification is a
remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, and against the
agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the agent has
violated his constitutional obligations, and a State, assuming to
judge for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, and
appeals to the other States of the Union for a decision; but when the
States themselves, and the people of the States have so acted as to
convince us that they will not regard our constitutional rights, then,
and then for the first time, arises the doctrine of secession in its
practical application.

A great man, who now reposes with his fathers, and who has often been
arraigned for a want of fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine of
nullification because it preserved the Union. It was because of his
deep-seated attachment to the Union--his determination to find some
remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties which bound
South Carolina to the other States--that Mr. Calhoun advocated the
doctrine of nullification, which he proclaimed to be peaceful, to be
within the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, but only
to be the means of bringing the agent before the tribunal of the
States for their judgment.

Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be
justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a
time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again when a better
comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable
rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying
that each State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which
it has made to any agent whomsoever. . .

In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a
great variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have
served long; there have been points of collision, but, whatever of
offence there has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostile
remembrance. Whatever offence I have given which has not been
redressed, or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have,
Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any
pain which, in the heat of the discussion, I have inflicted. I go
hence unencumbered by the remembrance of any injury received, and
having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power
for any injur